pronouns

[k8hertweck]

My email signature includes "Pronouns: any pronoun acceptable".

This seems to be a way of thinking that makes sense to a lot of folks (especially AFAB academics, as it turns out). Discussions in the queer community sometimes refer to this as “perceived pronouns,” which I often have to explain as “whatever you feel like suits me, works for me as well.” I sometimes also see folks say “whatever” or “I don’t care” as their pronouns, which seems flippant and dismissive. While to me, this is all equivalent to “any pronoun acceptable,” I find a lot of people are uncomfortable with me suggesting that the pronouns they use for me are a result of their own perceptions, rather than innate reality, hence the language on which I settled in my signature.